When I was a child, back in the 80's my parents would drive us all to Vancouver, BC to get fresh tropical fruits like longan, jackfruit, rambutan, cherimoya, and even the legendary stinky fruit durian. These exotics tropicals were not available here in the states yet in fresh form. They were always frozen which ruined the taste.
Those were the moments that shaped my love for tropical fruit.
{The picture below is of me at age 3 with my dad hanging out on the beach in Vietnam. This was the first time I ever tasted sliced bread. It remember it being the best piece of bread I've ever tasted in my life at the time. In my right hand was a small plastic bag that contained a crab that I had just caught}
Back then, tropical fruits were not abundant in Seattle. Maybe because they weren't commercially grown yet here in North America.
It was because eating fresh tropical fruit only happened once a year that it seemed like such a special occasion. I still treasure those memories. Including the number of times my dad got ticketed for trying to bring home fruit across the border. That is still a big no no nowadays.
Luckily today, I can go to the local Asian market and pick up most of the tropical fruits that we enjoyed 30yrs ago.
Including Jackfruit. Which can be sold as a whole fruit or in portions.
The taste of jackfruit can be compared to eating a tropical banana peel except much better obviously. It's super sappy so wear gloves when you cut into these and have some oil on hand for your knife.
The seeds can be grown quite easily as well. They sprout relatively easily using the paper towel method.
Now will they ever grow fruit is the other question. Probably not since these trees need to get pretty huge before they can produce fruit. But it's fun to try regardless.
